Salvationist 29 January 2022

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‘Children of Men’ is available on DVD and Blu-ray™ from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment UK

Perhaps it’s because so often joy takes us by surprise. As Danielle Strickland suggests in episode 21 of The All Terrain Podcast, ‘We’re so prone to functionality that we can view the interruptions or disruptions in our days as irritations rather than invitations for joy.’ Psychologist Dr Kate Middleton says in episode 17 that we should even seek to make joy a habit. She asks, ‘Do you value and make enough space for the things that will bring you joy – the things that will reliably lift your mood and sustain you even when everything else is really difficult? They could be things like making time for close friendships, losing yourself in worship or simply enjoying a good cup of coffee. For me, biking always brings me joy. It will always lift my mood.’ EXPERIENCING JOY IN RELATIONSHIPS In episode 12 of the podcast, Dr Krish Kandiah claims that ‘relationships are the means through which we experience joy’. This certainly rings true if we consider John’s Gospel, which was written to the Christians in Ephesus and which Dr Alexander John Shaia says addresses the question of how we receive joy. ‘At the end of the 1st century, Ephesus was a major seaport and the fourth largest city in the Greco-Roman world,’ Shaia explains. ‘Both port and capital city, it boasted a culturally diverse and thriving population.’ Amid that diversity,

the church had developed a powerful unity. The Christians had a glimpse of shalom, the Hebrew word that the Old Testament uses to describe the peace, wholeness, unity, harmony, fulfilment, prosperity, fruitfulness and joy that were present in the garden of Eden. General Brian Peddle, who features in episode 11 of the podcast, has witnessed something of that unity in diversity while visiting The Salvation Army around the world. When host Matt White asks him if there is still joy in The Salvation Army, his face lights up: ‘Oh, dear Lord, you haven’t danced in the Punjab! You haven’t turned up where an earthquake has killed thousands and seen 18,000 Salvationists – as well as all our Muslim friends in the community who we work with – at a service of thanksgiving and heard them sing their song of joy! ‘I’ve been to a safe house where people are being rescued from modern slavery, where I listened to 18-year-old Mary sing a song that told a terrible story. But her tagline was “the best is yet to come”. And I could see in that young Burundian’s face that there was joy. ‘Is there joy in The Salvation Army? I would say unequivocally yes! And if somebody wanted to argue with me, I’d take them on.’ STAYING OPEN TO JOY Joy can be short-lived. The film scene described earlier continues with everyone watching Theo, Kee and the baby in hushed silence as they emerge

New episodes of The All Terrain Podcast are released on the last Friday of the month on Apple Podcasts, Podbean and Spotify. Episode 24 is available now and features Mike Pilavachi MBE, the co-founder and leader of Soul Survivor. Sketch notes and group questions that support each episode can be downloaded from the podcast’s webpage at salvationarmy.org.uk/ youth-and-children. from the building and walk to safety. But a new explosion abruptly snaps everyone back to reality – and the fighting resumes, just as before. It is clear, however, that Theo has been changed by the encounter and becomes determined to see through his mission of getting the child to safety. Receiving God’s gift of joy is genuinely life-changing. But if joy often takes us by surprise and is largely experienced through our relationships with others, perhaps the biggest challenge for us in receiving joy is to maintain an openness to others. In his book, The End of Youth Ministry?, Andrew Root says: ‘Joy … is the communal experience of life coming out of death, which produces union with God and neighbour. It can be an individual experience, but it always takes us into something beyond us.’ Receiving joy requires that we let others in.

MATT WORSHIPS AT SUTTON AND WRITES THE ALL TERRAIN PODCAST SMALL GROUP QUESTIONS Salvationist 29 January 2022

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